while checking out this thread: [url=http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=161583]Favorite movie battle scenes?[/url], 5.1 was mentioned.
do you use the PCM cable (coaxial, RCA) or the Fiber Optic audio cables between your various components? (dvd, cd, etc..)
and do/have you found a better performer out of one or the other?
while on the "topic" how about speaker cable, you go with "whatever" or "Monster" type?
I'm using regular old speaker cable, a heavier gauge than supplied by OEM and a PCM cable between dvd and cd to my rx.
[i][red]oh cr@p, I hit the return or some other button, and didnt finish the poll like I wanted to...#$%^&*[/red][/i]

I'm in the audio industry, and we mostly laugh at the suckers who spend tons of money on Monster cable. There's a big psychological effect of those high dollar cables, though. I remember seeing a special 'audiophile' grade wall duplex receptacle being sold at a trade show a few years back. The thing was gold plated, extra low resistance, etc. The thing was being sold for more the $100!!!! Yet the wiring in most peoples houses is plain old romex spliced together with $.01 wirenuts. That's if you have a newer house. Most old houses have tons of receptacles linked together, with really nasty wiring. I bet that they sold tons of the $100 receptacles, though.
Audio-wise, it's a bit different in Pro-audio, since we use balanced cables to interconnect all our stuff, and nature of balanced audio reduces signal degredation. If you use decent quality audio and video cables, and steer away from the el-cheapo crap that comes with most pieces of gear, you'd be ok without having to take out a second mortgage to buy a set of Monster cables. We use 12/2 Belden 5000UE wiring to hook up all of our speakers, sometimes stepping up to 10 gauge for long runs. The Belden 5000UE costs us like 15 cents / foot. Maybe if you hooked up plain 12 gauge wiring and monster cable to an analyzer, you could detect a slight difference, but I can't ever remember any premium cable company doing that! Hmmm... why not!
We sell this fiber optic cabling that's really inexpensive, yet does a great job. The monster cable fiber was like $60+, and the stuff that I have was like $5 or less. Maybe it wouldn't work as well for everyone, but with digital, it usually works 100% or not at all.
Don't get me started about Bose!!!!

no highs, no lows, it must be Bose!
I work for an AV contractor as well... Those cables are a fricking ripoff. There's nothing that Monster cable can do that a piece of 12/2 from West Penn or Belden can't.
QS

Monster cables are a waste of money.
Use component hookups (3 separate connections) for video whenever possible.
I just buy the low budget stuff from Best Buy. I can't remember the brand name but it's about a third of the cost of Monster.

If you use the s/pdif connections, be sure to get 75 ohm video or digital audio cable, not regular RCA cable. The regular RCA analog cables can't handle the bandwidth of digital audio signals, and can cause clocking problems.
As far as the Monster stuff, in most cases it probably is a waste of money. As long as you use well shielded cable, your OK.

Bose... better sound through marketing
Now... I will say reluctantly... that I do have a set of those Bose Acoustimass 3 speakers as my surround channel. It's a bit anemic, but since I spend all my money on guns and ammo... not much room to replace them. I was young and stupid!

since the topic is about audio system,im having some problems with my hook up.
I got the Sony home theater system my tuner sound is good,if i play a audio cd in my dvd player it has good sound,but if im watching tv/digital cable or watching a dvd the sound is low I have to turn it almost all the way up to get it hearable.
I have a dvd hook up and digital cable hook up to to receiver.
I hook it up per instuctions.is the normal for the tv and dvd sound to be low, and not as loud as the tuner or cd played thru dvd?
hopefully someone understand what im trying to type out.

Well since I listen to old music, on an old stereo, with old ears ... RCA and copper are good enough for me. Looking to up grade my Yamaha M series amplifiers to something older like a couple of tube amplifiers.
For speaker cable I use nice thick cables for the subwoofer and front speakers but nothing approaching the cost of Monster Wire! The surround and center speakers get nothing but the best 18 guage lamp wire!
hanau - make sure that you've got the TV's Line Level output connected to the amplifier vice the Variable level. I use the variable and shut off my televisions built-in speakers. This allows me to control the volume of the movie via the television's remote control.

A digital signal is a digital signal, whether passed through Toslink or coax. I have both, and you can't tell a difference between the two, as long as the coax is a good quality cable.
FYI, it's cheaper to make your own quality cables:
[url]http://www.bus.ucf.edu/cwhite/theater/diycable.htm[/url]
and here's a little reading on speaker wire:
[url]http://home.earthlink.net/~rogerr7/wire.htm#alllowcost[/url]

I use RCA connections for everything except from the wall to my digital cable box. The ONLY fiber cable I have is from my DVD player to my receiver. The ONLY reason I did this was because I only required one fiber cable and it would allow me to test the quality. That one fiber cable was REALLY expensive.
I do recommend high quality RCA cables but fiber is not necessary.

The three dollar optical cables you can buy on ebay work as well as the $60 moster cables. I don't have much experience beyond my own home system with A/V fiber needs, but I can tell you unequivicably that there is virtually no difference in the quality of these cables. as long as the fiber is clear and the terminations are well polished then it will work, with fiber there is not much in between it either works or doesn't (at least at the short distances used for home theater), and if the packaging mentions gold or high quality connectors for audiophile sound, put it back and laugh, the connectors on a fiber circuit have nothing to do with the signal. When I first got my digital reciever I just couldn't help taking all of the fiber cables in to the office and put them on the otdr's and tberd 310's, and the cheapo ebay specials were as good as the monster cable.
Edited to add: I voted for a coax, if you are not running out of coax inputs like I did, fiber offers no advantage to the coax, and the fiber will be a lot more fragile than coax, and if you break the fiber you might as well chuck it because it is not worth having it spliced.

Mosnter is actually the low end stuff in the high end snake oil cable business.
Pay attention to Andrewy's advice and save your money on those phony, placebo, audio cable - it's all marketing and psychological.
If you don't believe me, go audition several top-notch brands against an ordinary electrical wire from Home Depot and see if you could distinguish the difference in a blind listening test.